While school children can recite the courageous voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World, there's a part of the story that most of us have probably never heard.
It hasn't been until the past 20 years that the memoirs of Christopher Columbus have been translated into English and openly made known. That's because there were people who did not want the world to know all that he had to say.
It was Columbus who wrote: "People have claimed that I was a navigator. But I knew little about navigation. I knew much about my God."
In his memoirs, Columbus made it clear that it was God Who put it in his heart to set out in search of the New World. But while the desire was strong, Columbus simply did not know what to do. So he sought God's wisdom.
During that time of seeking wisdom from God, the Holy Spirit led Columbus to Proverbs 8:27, "When he prepared the heavens, I [Wisdom] was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth."
As Columbus read that verse, the Spirit of God said to him, It cannot be a compass unless it is round.
"The Lord Jesus Christ, in His wisdom," Columbus later wrote, "showed me in His Word that the world was round, and there was no way I could fail. I set sail based on that verse."
God's wisdom had unlocked the door to the entire Western Hemisphere of the globe.
Insider Information
Wisdom is far more than just having a lot of information stuffed in your head. It is the divine ability of God to correctly use the knowledge that you have.
Christopher Columbus had plenty of knowledge. Yet, even he admitted that he didn't know enough to find his way to the New World. He needed wisdom. He needed insight and understanding from God as to what to do with what he did know.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians:
We speak wisdom among them that are perfect [or mature]: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.The wisdom of God is hidden. It is a mystery.
(1 Cor. 2:6-8)
Solving The Mystery
The key to drawing the wisdom of God out of our hearts and into our heads is found in 1 Corinthians 14, where the Apostle Paul describes yet another mystery: "He that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries" (1 Cor.14:2).
When we pray in tongues, we are not relying on our mind to pray. We're drawing those utterances out of our spirit, by the Holy Spirit. It's our spirit that does the praying. And as we've already seen, our spirit is where God hid His wisdom. So our spirit is in contact with all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
All that is to say: when we need the wisdom of God for any given situation, we can do what James 1:5 says to do—ask for it. We can pray, "Father, You said wisdom is the principal thing (Proverbs 4:7), so I'm asking You for it in this matter I'm facing. Holy Spirit, as I begin to pray, I believe You to give me utterance to speak the mysteries concerning this."
So start building that bridge from your heart to your head, today. Begin translating heavenly revelation into earthly instructions by praying in the Spirit.
As you do, you'll discover your own New World in God.
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God’s WORD to their lives.
